Xavi Hernández

[jamrock]

4-3 good over the two legs, that's all I asked for, now on to the league, next season is for the European push.

 

[malvolio]

It certainly is a combination of not good enough players + Xavi being bad. Can't be putting it all on Xavi.

 

[Morten]

OK, Zidane like voodoo but in the league?

Yeah, pretty much, but being lucky is better than being good, so i'm hoping you get rid of Xavi soon, this "1-0"-act has gone on for a really long time, when he is gone this "aura" will also disappear.

 

[delancey]

When does his contract expire?

 

[KingLeo10]

4-3 good over the two legs, that's all I asked for, now on to the league, next season is for the European push.

European push with who? The attack is abysmal..Raphinha is a fraud, and so is Lewa

Dembele is good but hot and cold and injury prone

 

[Sorin]

Busquets, Balde, De Jong, MATS, Araujo, Christensen, Dembele

Busquets, really?

Balde, maybe but he's young and he's bound to improve but let's give him Balde

De Jong? Did you see him in 2019 in CL? Not seeing any improvements over that version of so not

Christensen has won the CL and has been rock solid fo Chelsea for years so again no

MATS is a gk. Do you think a head coach has anything to do with his form? I don't.

Dembele, I already gave it to him

The rest regressed, either by being old or Xavi not having a clue how to coach

 

[BBZ8800]

I don't get why we see not advancing against United as a failure.
They have a hugely larger squad of averagely better players and a more experienced coach.
What was the expectation here? We are broke and they have spent billions the last 10 years.
On top of that we were missing 3 of our best players.
Get a grip. This fanbase is delusional.

True

People are overrating our players.

Even with Pedri and Gavi, we were KOd twice in a group stage of a CL.

Our last two years against normal opponents in Europe:

Bayern 0:3
Benfica 0:3
Benfica 0:0
Bayern 0:3
Bayern 0:2
Inter 0:1
Inter 3:3
Bayern 0:3
Man Utd 2:2
Man Utd 1:2

And 50:50 results vs Napoli, Galatasaray and Eintracht.

This is not 1 match, we have 10 matches without a win vs stronger European teams.

La liga is the weakest in the last 20-30 years and we have a ton of lucky 1:0 wins.

Players are average.
Coach is average.
Our physique is average.
Our psychology is bad.
We don't have captains.
We don't have money.
And our tactics are from 15 years ago.

An interesting thing tonight: to escape pressure, Man Utd's defenders often played a long ball to midfielders to avoid the first wave of pressure around their box.

We will adopt that idea around 2030'.
We are still in 2009' where the only way to build is from the back and trying to TikiTaka the opponent with shortpasses from a Gk to defenders to Busi.

The difference in quality on all levels was insane tonight.

Something like France vs Poland in NT terms.
Or Brazil vs Serbia.

We can sack Xavi, but this team is not winning against anyone in Europe for years.
And considering how all the money is going to EPL, I don't know what is the answer for Barca.

 

[JohnN]

Dude, I don't wanna be rude to you
But you should try to realize Xavi's defeatist attitude first of all, instead of piling up excuses for him

The guy didn't make subs until we were behind. ETH made a sub at minute 45 and kept making even after they equalized.
This mentality is Barca mentality

No worries, everyone is upset after the result. I am not saying Xavi is blameless. I already said I don't support him from the moment he used Pique and Busi against Inter at home. But we have to realize that the squad is not good enough. La Liga has fallen down a cliff and we may win it.
But in Europe, we are way way way behind other teams. Even United. Not flashy names perhaps, but a deep squad, with fast attackers.
We employ LEWAFLOPSKI to miss sitters and ruin every attacking action. What can you do. fuck it.

 

[Birdy]

ETH put in an 100m attacker from the bench.

SHUT UP you moron
The fact that the idiots Glazers paid 100m for him doesn't mean he is worth 100m.

Your pathetic idol Xavi went for that useless bum RAphinia instead of him. Says it all really

 

[serghei]

I fucking said it about Auba. I don't get the Lewa transfer. Why get a 34yo player to play pure 9 in Barca? And play like shit on top of that.
Should just have kept Lukk and spam crosses. I guarantee we would have a better chance.

If Xavi is responsible for selections like Kessie, Raphinia, Ferran, then he has big big blame. If not, I would give him the benefit of the doubt, since the team is not good enough. I have been saying they are not good enough from the start, NO MATTER how much they cost.

The first 11 is good enough to beat United.

The problem is the squad is very short, so when injuries happen, the team gets a lot worse.

And so it happened that injuries hit vs Inter and Bayern in CL, and now vs United in EL. It is what it is.

But despite these injuries, the tie was competitive and decided by fine margins in the end.

 

[JamDav1982]

When does his contract expire?

Doesnt really matter. They will extend him anyway.

 

[malvolio]

Yeah, pretty much, but being lucky is better than being good, so i'm hoping you get rid of Xavi soon, this "1-0"-act has gone on for a really long time, when he is gone this "aura" will also disappear.

Don't worry, he'll probably get this Liga, but will be dropped next season when we get dumped out of CL groups again.

 

[Neeraj]

Nobody is saying Xavi is the only problem. Point is he should be doing better with the current players AND the fact that a lot of these players not being good enough is HIS fault. He is the one that signed off on Kessie, Ferran, Raphinha, Lewa, Alonso...

 

[JamDav1982]

The first 11 is good enough to beat United.

The problem is the squad is very short, so when injuries happen, the team gets a lot worse.

And so it happened that injuries hit vs Inter and Bayern in CL, and now vs United in EL. It is what it is.

But despite these injuries, the tie was competitive and decided by fine margins in the end.

Nah the eleven at home was more than good enough to beat them and team looked disorganised and out coached bar late in game when it was just chaos.

Terrible coaching in Europe again and his signings exposed.

 

[JohnN]

True

People are overrating our players.

Even with Pedri and Gavi, we were KOd twice in a group stage of a CL.

Our last two years against normal opponents in Europe:

Bayern 0:3
Benfica 0:3
Benfica 0:0
Bayern 0:3
Bayern 0:2
Inter 0:1
Inter 3:3
Bayern 0:3
Man Utd 2:2
Man Utd 1:2

And 50:50 results vs Napoli, Galatasaray and Eintracht.

This is not 1 match, we have 10 matches without a win vs stronger European teams.

La liga is the weakest in the last 20-30 years and we have a ton of lucky 1:0 wins.

Players are average.
Coach is average.
Our physique is average.
Our psychology is bad.
We don't have captains.
We don't have money.
And our tactics are from 15 years ago.

An interesting thing tonight: to escape pressure, Man Utd's defenders often played a long ball to midfielders to avoid the first wave of pressure around their box.

We will adopt that idea around 2030'.
We are still in 2009' where the only way to build is from the back and trying to TikiTake the opponent with shortpasses from a Gk to defenders to Busi.

The difference in quality on all levels was insane tonight.

Something like France vs Poland in NT terms.
Or Brazil vs Serbia.

We can sack Xavi, but this team is not winning against anyone in Europe for years.
And considering how all the money is going to EPL, I don't know what is the answer for Barca.

I agree. We have improved, but we are nowhere near the level to compete in Europe.
Don't get me wrong, I don't see Xavi as the second coming of Pep or whatever, but this squad (especially tonights) would have no chance with most coaches.